Fish on.......

Fishing and sunshine has been the name of the game the last week or two.

The cruise ships are back in town, and it's nuts here with lots of traffic.  Meaning tons of cars and boats everywhere.  Fun to see the difference between winter and summer, but it makes driving through town painful.

25' Coast Guard Safe Boat dwarfed.

Some days there are five cruise ships in town, doubling our towns population,

New pedal bike for his birthday.  This bike was made by people who want kids to have fun riding bikes.  Not a Walmart junker, and it shows in how much better he rides it.

Sleeping with "sealy".

Developing skills.

Coworker "Hefe" Jeff catching ling cod.

Ling cod and quill back.

55 degree water, and we can't get him out of it.

Crab carapace helmet.

This eagle had a burned off wing, dead, from the power lines.

Morning trollers.

Tugboat Ride

We were lucking enough the other day to spend 11 hours on a tugboat going up to Tolstoi Bay to assist a freighter get out of the bay and underway with its load of logs.  The tugs assist by essentially pushing and pulling these huge boats into position in otherwise impossibly narrow bays with the assistance of a sea pilot on board who knows local waters.  It was an amazing experience to witness first hand some of the behind the scenes action of tug boats and the logging industry.  So many moving parts............

Wheelhouse from the tug, heading up the Clarence Straight with some 4-5ft chop.

Boats zipping in an out, float planes taxiing around, unreal.

They pile the logs up near the ship that are cabled together, then use boom boats to push them into position, then the cranes pick them up for loading.

The huge cranes.

Loading boom boats onto a barge to be hauled back to Ketchikan.

Smaller tug pushing the freighter into position in the channel.

The captain was so relaxed all the time.  20+ years of being a captain on tugs.

Releasing from the mooring buoy.

Orient Becrux headed to it's home port.

Out of order fishing pic from the next day;)

So many things could go wrong, but they execute it well.

The brief rest, as they go to the next log bundle.

After they get the logs bound up, they jump on the boom boat and get into position for the next hoist.

Bind logs to crane.

Then get out of the way!

Humpback from yesterday.

Naha Skookum Chuck

Last week we docked the boat at the Naha Bay FS dock just before high tide, unloaded the Zodiac, and coasted through the tidal race into Roosevelt Lagoon.  Going through the tidal race for the first time and into the lagoon felt pretty special, like entering a hidden world.  Once there, we cruised to the end of the lagoon and scoped out the trail to the cabins.  We came back out a little early, maybe 20 minutes before the flood was over, and it took a fair bit of throttle to get through the current.  

This place is pretty magical.  Nice picnic shelter at the tidal race, great trail, quiet, somewhat surreal.

At the dock trying to net small fish.

Out of order pics, but this is leaving the lagoon, where the tidal race is.

Running around in the brush trying to find the trail.

The skipper in the lagoon.

Entering the tidal race on the flood tide.

Picnic shelter near the dock.

Slippery rocks.

This is the same tidal race, when it's going full steam.  We went through when it was calm.

A different day, on a minus 4ft tide, sea cucumber.

And of course, whales, right next to shore.